Carroll Quigley Endowed Chair Brochure
For forty years Professor Carroll
Quigley’s teachings quickened and disciplined the minds of students of the
School of Foreign Service. His inspired lectures in Development of Civilization,
for four decades and for as many thousands of students, literally defined the
School, their education and themselves.
Professor Quigley’s pedagogy was synonymous with discipline and with methods of
analysis and interpretation. He was justly known – even reknowned – for his
determination to make students think. The result was not always immediately or
fully appreciated (as the next paragraph recounts!) but no teacher has been more
respected by alumni who daily, in their working lives, progressively discover
the value of a Quigley education.
One day in the Walsh Building a colleague of Professor Quigley’s saw a sign that
said “Jesus Loves You.” Written below the sign was the following plaint by a
student: “If that is true, why did Professor Quigley give me an F?” Those who
recall Dr. Quigley’s lectures on the providential deity will know that there is
no logical inconsistency between Jesus’s love and a low grade from Professor
Quigley!
To say that Professor Carroll Quigley is an institution inseparable from the
School of Foreign Service is to state a fact. His retirement from full time
teaching at the age of 65 in no way diminished this fact. But it does provide
his former students with an opportunity to contribute to a fund in Professor
Quigley’s name. Our goal is a fund of $500,000 to endow a Carroll Quigley
Professorship. This Professorship will stand at the center of the School of
Foreign Service as a permanent, inspiring testimony to the legend of this master
teacher.
This fall Professor Carroll Quigley delivered a series of lectures entitled
“Public Authority and the State in the Western Tradition: A Thousand Years of
Growth, 976-1976.” These published lectures, inscribed by Professor Quigley,
will be sent in appreciation to contributors to the Carroll Quigley Fund.
Peter F. Krogh
Dean, School of Foreign Service
I have known Carroll Quigley as a
colleague and friend for three decades at Georgetown University. His name will
be indelibly indentified with the School of Foreign Service, but his presence
has equally enriched the History Department faculty and the University. It is
fitting that an endowed chair should be dedicated in his honor to commemorate
the excellence of his teaching and the many contributions he has made to keep
Georgetown University’s academic standards high.
Dr. Quigley has always been concerned with the attainment of quality education
at Georgetown and with inspiring in his students a desire for knowledge. He has
not only stimulated the imagination of his students, but compelled them to think
independently, and to challenge accepted concepts and traditional historical
interpretations. This process sometimes was painful for some students, but many
who were able to take advantage of his teaching techniques and methodology of
approach were grateful for the experience. Most alumni who look back on their
college years at Georgetown and took Dr. Quigley’s course in Development of
Civilization say they will never forget him. His influence remains with them,
and they recall vividly how much he taught them.
The key to Carroll Quigley’s success as a teacher and as a scholar lies in his
creative intellect, the depth of his perceptions, and the wide interdisciplinary
range of this interests, which encompasses the fields of history, economics,
philosophy, and science. An iconoclast and a person of insatiable curiosity, as
well as keenness of mind, Dr. Quigley stands apart from the specialized scholar
who plows diligently in the rutted grooves of narrow disciplines.
What has most disturbed Carroll Quigley is the deterioration that has occurred
in college education. While universities have produced an ever increasing number
of specialists, technicians, scholars, and researchers in a wide variety of
fields, institutions of higher education have been affected by a philosophical
myopia. This has caused a serious erosion of the highest ideals associated with
intellectual pursuits and professionalism. Throughout his life, Dr. Quigley has
fought against this trend. A chair in Carroll Quigley’s name will stand for
quality education for as long as it is endowed.
Dr. Jules Davids
Professor of Diplomatic History
